Posted: 08/02/07

America's Moral Infrastructure is Heaving

The terrible news out of Minneapolis about the collapse of a crowded bridge was only the latest news story to document the seriously decaying state of America's infrastructure. Underneath the ground we live on and drive on is the structure that enables all Americans to go about their business with the assurance of clean water, safe highways, sanitation and so forth. A recent story from USA Today detailed the struggle in American cities to pay for the overhauls necessary for things like new highways, bridges, and steam pipes that are quickly failing. The explosion of a steam pipe in New York that killed and injured several recently is yet another example of this. We've been living in a sort of fool's paradise, going about our lives, assuming that somebody is taking care of it all. Until the bridge underneath you collapses in rush hour.

In so many ways, the crisis of America's physical infrastructure mirrors that of its moral infrastructure. The right-side-up worldview inherited from the Christian influence upon our nation's founders is in pieces. The foundations are trembling. While all kinds of other things distracted us, the solid footing under our feet as a nation has been rotting away, one bit at a time. A song from a popular musical from the 1930's told us that everything you might have heard about the Bible and all that God stuff , well, "it ain't necessarily so." Generations later, this mentality is only now bearing its deadly fruit.

Americans have rejected that a moral foundation rooted on God and the Bible is necessary for a nation to prosper. Sexual anarchy is now promoted as normal and healthy to children in our tax funded schools. Hedonism and gluttony are now a routine part of the middle class lifestyle. Tens of millions of humans have been murdered in the womb with official government sanction and billions are spent on pornography and filth on television and in the movies. With each passing day, another bit of the moral infrastructure cracks a little more. We are overrun with illegal immigrants who uninterested in assimilating with and contributing to our nation, while those who lawfully apply have a difficult time getting in. Nobody seems capable of stopping the flood. Crack. China seems to now own America, with their cheap and often toxic goods flooding the market. Crack. American jobs are now being sent to third world countries. Crack. The Christian churches that once served as salt and light by spreading the Gospel far and wide have become YMCA-style social clubs, promoting the finding of one's "best life now" or "purpose" rather than proclaiming Christ crucified, the only hope for the nation and the world. Crack. Worse still, some churches and pastors are actually contributing to the endemic moral squalor of the nation. These are pastors who are consumed with Hollywood and sensual gratification at the expense of the true Gospel. They proudly fill their blogs with their own shame and dare anyone to disagree with them. No wonder the nation's moral infrastructure is cracking.

So what do we do as Christian believers in the midst of this decay? We need to make sure our feet are on something that will not crumble, even if everything else around us does. When the huge tsunami hit in Asia several years ago, the only people on the beach who survived were those who had climbed higher and had clung to rocks there. As our nation's moral and spiritual infrastructure heaves, just like in the terrible video that was captured of the falling bridge, may we place our feet on the solid rock of our Lord Jesus Christ. When our feet our secure, we then must call as many others as we can to the safety found in Jesus. He alone is sure.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,

All other ground is sinking sand!

By Ingrid Schlueter Email: vcyproducer@aol.com Click here for bio and archived articles